January, 2018

• 14 January

  Tunisian opposition rejects aid pledge, urges more protests

  

  Bloomberg Tunisia’s main opposition parties derided a government pledge to increase aid for low-income families, urging Tunisians to step up protests over IMF-backed austerity measures as the country marks the seventh anniversary of the revolt that inspired the Arab Spring uprisings. “Government actions are just painkillers and cannot deal with the situation,” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the opposition Democratic ...

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• 14 January

  Iranian oil tanker sinks; all 32 aboard presumed dead

  

  Reuters An Iranian oil tanker has sunk after burning for more than a week following a collision on Jan. 6 in the East China Sea, Chinese state media said on Sunday, adding that large amounts of oil are burning in the surrounding waters. Iranian officials said the remaining 29 crew members and passengers of the tanker were presumed dead. Iranian ...

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• 14 January

  Rouhani says US has failed to undermine nuclear deal

  

  ANKARA / Reuters Iran’s president said on Sunday the United States had failed to undermine a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers, and hailed the accord as a “long-lasting victory” for Iran, state television reported. US President Donald Trump delivered an ultimatum to European signatories of the deal to fix the “terrible flaws” of the agreement with Iran, or ...

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• 14 January

  Iraqi PM Abadi to run for parliamentary polls

  BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Sunday his candidacy for the May 12 parliamentary elections to choose a prime minister. Abadi, a Shi’ite Muslim who led the country in the four-year war against IS, said he will seek to form a cross-sectarian block called ‘’the victory alliance’’ to contest the parliamentary elections, with candidates from other ...

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• 14 January

  Zeman to face re-election challenge in Czech runoff

  

  Bloomberg Czech President Milos Zeman is heading into a runoff against a pro-European challenger in a ballot that’s become a public reckoning of a veteran politician who’s thrown his support behind Russian lea-der Vladimir Putin and mobilised voters with anti-migrant rhetoric. Zeman, 73, had 39 percent with nearly all districts counted after the first round of voting. The former prime ...

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• 14 January

  ‘Wrong button’ sends Hawaii incoming ballistic missile alert

  Bloomberg An alert mistakenly warning Hawaiians of an imminent ballistic missile attack — at a time the state’s residents are already anxious about nuclear tensions between the US and North Korea — resulted from human error, Hawaii’s governor said. The emergency notice was triggered after an “employee pushed the wrong button” during a shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management ...

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• 14 January

  Dubai is the very model of a modern Mideast economy

  

  For more than 100 years, the Middle East has been defined by oil exploration, production and its boundaries. Now the region is getting repurposed by its aspiration to grow beyond fossil fuel. The shake-up in Saudi Arabia is also much about becoming a 21st-century economy. None of the region’s petrostates has moved further from its oilfield roots than Dubai, which ...

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• 14 January

  Getting Saudi Aramco IPO might be the easy part for Hong Kong

  

  Was there ever really an Asian contender apart from Hong Kong to host Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s IPO? Unlikely. The challenge for the world’s largest oil company, if it lists in the territory, will be keeping investors interested once trading starts. Saudi Arabia has shortlisted the city, along with London and New York, for the international portion of a potential ...

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• 14 January

  Don’t start thanking Trump for pay raises just yet

  

  Wal-Mart has just announced higher wages and one-time bonuses for most of its workers — linking the news to the corporate tax cuts signed last month by President Donald Trump. It joins a growing list of companies saying “Thank you” to the president by raising their employees’ pay. The White House is crowing (its celebration only slightly dimmed by Wal-Mart’s ...

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• 14 January

  World’s worst weather threat isn’t hurricanes

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week released its list of climate events that have had the greatest economic impact on the US from 1980 to 2017. At $306 billion, last year’s sustained costs due to weather disasters was 43 percent higher than in 2005, which had hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Hurricane Harvey alone caused $125 billion in ...

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